Yesterday Apple released an update to the latest version of their iOS operating system to address concerns (have you heard?!?) about the iPhone 4's infamous "death grip" reception problems. Their fix was to change the way all versions of the iPhone calculate and display signal strength, claiming that the issue arose from the phone displaying more bars of signal than it should, particularly in areas of weak reception.

Apple's explanation of the cause of the problem was met with plenty of derision, and deservedly so. While it's likely true that they and all other handset makers and carriers exaggerate the signal strength, this in no way explains the distinct drop in signal strength when the phone is held a certain way, by certain people, in certain places.

In any case, Apple's silly statement and the software change yesterday is most interesting because it reinforces that the whole "bars of signal" measurement is bullshit to begin with. There is no standard for cell phone signal strength, so it's left to carriers and hardware makers to determine how to translate actual signal strength into a little picture of bars. Their marketing on this has been so successful that people were aghast to learn that Apple's phones may have displayed more bars than they "should." News flash: your phone does too. Or it doesn't. There's no way to say because there's no standard.

Anandtech has some great analysis of the original problem and yesterday's update. The images showing how signal strength is mapped to bars on iPhone before and after the update and on Android are fascinating. Apple even changed the height of the bars in the little graphic.

signalbarmapping.jpg

In the end, though, signal strength is a real, measurable thing being translated (by ALL phone makers) into an abstract representation to give customers a perception of strength that may or may not have much to do with the actual strength of their signal, and certainly is not comparable among different phone models.

Whatever the cause, Apple's issues with iPhone 4 have brought this little secret into the open.

Apple is holding a press conference to discuss the iPhone 4 issue in 5 minutes. More to come.